John Harbaugh calls Ravens’ handling of Lamar Jackson injury designation an ‘honest mistake’

Baltimore Ravens coach John Harbaugh said it was an “honest mistake” by the team’s medical and public relations staff that led to incorrectly listing quarterback Lamar Jackson as a full participant on its injury report Friday.

The Ravens initially listed Jackson, who missed his third straight game Sunday with a hamstring injury he suffered on Sept. 28, as a full participant on the game’s final injury report Friday. He was listed as questionable for the game. On Saturday, the Ravens downgraded Jackson to out and clarified Friday’s injury report, saying the quarterback was limited.

“That’s in the training room and PR and the other side — medical side,” Harbaugh said of the mistake, which is subject to a league review. “It’s not in the football side. But it’s an honest mistake. It really is an honest mistake. I could tell you this: nobody is trying to hide anything. There’s no advantage to be gained with that. He practiced; his status is what it was. It was questionable.”

But, as the team acknowledged in its statement on Saturday, Jackson’s participation in Friday’s practice was with the scout team. Per NFL rules, that required Jackson to be listed as limited.

“A player who participates in individual drills, but for medical reasons does not take his normal repetitions during the team portion of practice and is assigned to the scout team should be listed as ‘Limited Participation,’” the league’s injury report rules state. “Participation on the scout team, no matter how extensive, by a player whose normal repetitions would be with the starters but for his medical condition, would not alter the player’s proper designation as ‘Limited Participation.’”

“I’m not involved with those rules,” Harbaugh said. “I don’t know those rules. In (the medical and PR teams’) defense, he practiced a full practice. I think they felt like because he did the same number of reps, it was a full practice. But when you dig in and read the rule, at the end of the day, it wasn’t right. That’s what it was. As soon as we found out, we changed it.”

Baltimore’s handling of Jackson’s status had wide-ranging implications, from preparation for the opposing team to fantasy football lineups and betting lines. The Ravens, who beat the Chicago Bears 30-16 on Sunday, went from almost a touchdown favorite to a 2-point favorite. Sports gambling has been in the news all week, with the NBA mired in a major gambling scandal and the NFL sending out memos to remind players and league personnel of gambling rules.

Harbaugh said the team was hopeful Jackson could play and wasn’t planning to determine his status until Saturday.

“The status was pretty much the status all the way through,” Harbaugh said. “We were hoping (he could play). We weren’t going to rule him out before we had to. At the end of the day, the conversations that were had, they just didn’t feel like the two games in five days would be the thing to do. That comes back to us, and when you hear that as a coach, that’s what you do.

“With him not practicing with the first offense throughout the week, it’s just getting Tyler (Huntley) ready to go, and we’re going to go play football with Tyler. And if Lamar would have come back, it could have happened. As a coach, I would have put him in there and Tyler … would have understood that, right? That would have been the way it would have gone. He didn’t get to the point where they felt comfortable with that part of it.”